


The Great Divide Chapter 27: Save Yourself

by Antigravity_Carnivore



Series: The Great Divide [27]
Category: Breaking Benjamin (Band), STARSET (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Anger, Angst, Attempted Kidnapping, Character Death, Computers, Dark, F.E.C., Fluff and Angst, Inspired by Music, M/M, Music, Science Fiction, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-07
Updated: 2018-04-07
Packaged: 2019-04-19 17:06:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14241894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antigravity_Carnivore/pseuds/Antigravity_Carnivore
Summary: Now separated, Dustin and the boys are faced with each of their own worst nightmares, as the true evil is revealed to them, forcing one man to make a choice that may end his life.





	The Great Divide Chapter 27: Save Yourself

There was a light tap at the door. Ron looked over at it with an annoyed glance and pressed the button on the remote, changing the TV station. He wasn’t expecting anyone and decided it was best to simply ignore it. The sound of raindrops on the window, and cocktail of painkillers in his system made him incredibly drowsy, making sleeping his main priority for the day. Rolling over, he pulled the blankets up around his shoulders and closed his eyes, listening to the low voices on the TV and the quiet crash of waves outside on the beach. It had been months now since the intruder broke into the beach house, mercilessly murdering two of his friends, Brock and Dustin, and the pain was still too much for him to bear. Adam had managed to escape with only a minor concussion, but Ron wasn’t so lucky, being the receiver of a gunshot wound to the leg, shattering his kneecap and causing him to become an invalid for weeks. He chose to spend most of his time recuperating on the couch, shrouded in a hazy sea of painkillers and beer. It was better to just forget about it for a while and go to sleep, rather than being awake and face a house full of painful reminders.

The tapping on the door became more persistent now, and Ron groaned, pulling the blankets up over his head. He wanted them to go away. “Hey, you know that they gave you a cane for a reason, Ron. Get up and answer the door!” Adam said harshly, as he stepped out of the kitchen wearing a frilly pink apron and carrying a spatula, obviously annoyed by the interruption. “You should be up and walking around more anyway, or else you’re going to bury yourself in that mountain of empty beer cans that you have stacked up there on that coffee table.” Ron mumbled something incoherent and retreated deeper into his blankets. Adam shook his head in disappointment, conceding defeat and making his way over to the door hoping that his unattended pancakes wouldn’t burn. Glancing at the security monitor that they had installed after the incident, Adam cursed under his breath and pulled the door open, coming face to face with Rhiannon Burnley.

Standing at the door way, she was soaking wet and shivering. Looking up at Adam, she smiled. “Can I come in please?”

Grabbing her arm, Adam pulled her inside. “Of course, here let me get you a towel.” He ran off towards the kitchen as Ron sat up from the couch, gazing groggily at her.

“Rhiannon?” Ron clutched the blankets tightly around his body, suddenly wishing that he was wearing more than a simple pair of boxers. “What are you doing here?”

Slowly she made her way over to him and sat down, stepping past all the empty beer cans and bags of chips. “I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d come in to say hello.” She looked away from him towards the massive bay windows and out to the ocean beyond. “Ben always liked being near the water, even when it was raining. He used to say that one day, he wanted to walk out into those waves and disappear, let them completely overwhelm him and take all of his pain away.” She paused for a moment and looked away. “He never got to do that, the pain took him away instead.”

Adam returned to the living room, carrying a soft towel and a hot cup of tea. Neatly draping the soft fabric over her shoulders, he offered her the hot tea, which she took with shaking hands and sat down on a chair across from her. “We all miss Benjamin, Rhiannon. No one knew how fast the sickness would take him. I guess we all thought that we would have one more year, one more month, and even just one more day with him but we were wrong.” He glanced over at Ron, who was still firmly wrapped up in his blankets and thought back to the moment when he was forced to watch his friends being murdered in front of him. “We all lost so much.”

Rhiannon looked down into the swirling liquid of her tea, wrapping her hands around the white porcelain cup and spoke quietly. “I am done losing people…I am going to fight back.”

Ron sat up, wincing slightly in pain and looked at her curiously. “Huh? What do you mean?”

Pushing some empty beer cans out of the way, she gently set the untouched cup of tea down and neatly folded her hands in her lap, lacing her fingers together nervously. “I lost my husband, you lost Dustin and Brock…I refuse to let one more person slip away from me.” She took a long, deep breath and held it in her lungs. “I don’t know who took my son away, but I am going to find out…and I need your help.”

Adam reached out and took hold of Rhiannon’s hands. He instantly noticed how cold they were. “Rhiannon, the person who kidnapped Little Ben is gone. All the police reports said that they found the motorcycle that the kidnapper was riding on, or what was left of it in the water under the bridge. There were skid marks leading off the edge, no one could possibly have survived a crash from that height.”

Rhiannon’s fingertips dug deeply into Adam’s hands. “There were never any bodies found! You know this! I think that the kidnapper hid Ben somewhere and made it look like an accident. I’ve tried to convince the police of this, but they won’t listen to me. Please Adam, hear me out for a few minutes, I am begging you… I tried to talk to the other boys, but they all treat me like I am some sort of lunatic with crazy theories, but I am not. The only one who will listen to me is Aaron, but his hands are tied right now dealing with his own son. I am not asking you for anything else right now but a few minutes of your time. Please…I don’t know who else to turn to.” She started sobbing and Ron shifted closer to her, putting his arm around her shoulder.

“Of course we will listen to you.” Adam said in a comforting tone. “No matter what, we will always make time for you Rhiannon.” The truth was that after the death of their friends, Adam and Ron didn’t know what was going to happen to the two of them. Having had their entire world turned upside down in a matter of months, music was the farthest thing from their minds. Ron had to focus on recovering, and Adam was struggling to keep it all together as best as he could. Rhiannon’s world revolved around her husband and her son, and since they were both gone now, Adam couldn’t possibly imagine how lonely she must be feeling.

Moving a little closer to Ron, Rhiannon looked at both the men cautiously. “What I am about to tell you might put you both in danger, but I feel as though it’s worth the risk. You need to be aware of a few things, because it might also save your life.” She paused for a moment, almost doubting whether or not she wanted to bring these men into her confidence, but there was no going back now, she had to do it. “I guess the best place to start is at the beginning, with Ben. It wasn’t a secret that he was an alcoholic, one look at him and you could just tell that there was something wrong with him. I did everything I could to help him through those dark days, but he shut everyone out and chose to suffer alone. I knew that he was depressed and possibly suicidal because those lyrics he wrote…his words were a cry for help. I wasn’t enough for him. All I wanted was his happiness, and his love.” Rhiannon’s eyes started to tear up and her hands trembled even more as she spoke. “But then I became pregnant… I won’t lie to you, at first I didn’t want to tell Ben, I wanted to keep it secret and then get rid of it, because I didn’t want to raise a baby with a father who couldn’t be there for him. Who was I to subject a child to a life like that? Then one day early on, Ben and I had a fight. I don’t even remember what it was about, but to be spiteful, I blurted it out and then he walked out on me. I was devastated. I spent the most of night crying until there was a knock at my door. When I answered it, there was a woman there, dressed in all black with a hood pulled up over her head. She told me that my husband needed me and that she would take me to him. I don’t know why I went with her, but I did. She took me to a bar not far from where we lived and I found Ben passed out drunk in the street. Together we got him in the car and brought him home. She helped me put him in bed and then asked if I’d fetch her a glass of water. I left her alone with him for a few moments and when I returned, she was gone and the window was open. I checked back on Ben, he was sleeping rather peaceful but when I turned to walk away, I found a small glass vial on the floor next to the bed. It was empty. I was utterly terrified, so I chose to stay with him all night, to watch him breathe. I needed to know he was going to make it through the night. The hours passed by like days; I was utterly exhausted by morning. When he woke up, he looked a little groggy and dazed, but fine otherwise. He came over to the chair where I was sitting and kissed me. It was different from any other kiss he had ever given me before. His lips were filled with a strange new confidence and passion that completely overwhelmed me and took me by surprise. From that moment on, I knew that we were going to be a family.”

“You never found out who that woman was?” Adam asked.

Rhiannon shook her head. “No. I never even got a good look at her. It was raining and she wore a long dark coat with a hood pulled up, that’s all I know. I never thought that I would see her again… until the night when little Ben was kidnapped.” Picking up her cup of tea, she took a quick sip of it, letting the hot liquid warm her frigid body. “I am getting ahead of myself here, forgive me.” Rhiannon smiled and gave both men a soft look. She seemed so fragile, telling her story. “So anyway, Ben got better. A lot better. Everything was starting to go well for us. He found a new band, we bought a house, had a child, made new friends, it was all falling into place. The music and melodies that were flowing out of him were unstoppable. It was almost too good to be true. Then one day out of the blue, Ben started talking about these bizarre conspiracies and predictions for the future where the Earth was going to be destroyed. When I asked him where he came up with these fantastic ideas, all he said was that he read about them in a book. Around this time, he started to develop an illness that robbed him of his strength. It came out of nowhere, starting off slowly at first, but then rapidly progressing at an alarming rate. He’d be sick in bed for days, not even able to eat or drink. Then suddenly he would start planning another tour and getting excited about it and back on his feet in a day or two. I was deeply worried about it, but he didn’t seem concerned at all. The only thing that mattered to him was fulfilling his promise to his fans. If he could stand, then he could play and this made him happy. All the doctors told him that it was probably a result of his alcoholism, but there was no proof. They couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was wrong with him, and he kept getting worse and worse. He’d become strangely protective of little Ben, who had just turned three years old, and Ben would often wake up every single hour of the night and go check on him, just to make sure he was there in his room.” The cup started to shake in her hands, and she was forced to place it back down on the table. “Eventually, Ben…being Ben said fuck it, and started to somehow fight through the pain and do shows, even if he was sick. He wouldn't take no for an answer. Everyone was so proud of him, and pretended like they didn’t see how ill he was… he fooled them all, including the people who were closest to him.… and then the fans, all they wanted was their money’s worth for the price of a ticket…but I knew. I could never make little Ben understand though. All he could see was the strong, protective father that would bounce him in his arms and let him tug at his beard.”

Ron smiled at her. “Ah yes, I remember him posting lots of videos on Instagram of them together. Benjamin was very proud of his son and loved to show him off. They looked so happy together.”

Rhiannon nodded. “Yes, that’s the side of Ben that he wanted everyone to see. To see him sick and suffering could never happen; Ben didn’t want sympathy or pity from anyone at all. Even us.” She let out a small sigh. “That last night as they were getting ready to go on, I could see it in his eyes. It wasn’t illness or sickness, but fear. He was afraid of something…I tried to get him to talk to me, but he kept pushing me away and telling me everything was fine. I thought that maybe he was having some sort of hysteria or panic attack and tried to get his personal assistant Terry to convince him to call off the show, but Breaking Benjamin went on anyway. I saw him cling close to Aaron for most of the show, and I got scared a few times that Ben wouldn’t be able to finish, he looked so pale and weak, but the show went off perfectly. When they got off stage, Ben scooped up little Ben and went immediately to the trailer, asking the others to help tear down the stage with the roadies. It was an unusual request, but they did it anyway, without complaint. Aaron, Jasen, Shaun and Keith loved and respected Ben too much to question any request that he gave them; they all had owed so much to him. The three of us went inside, and Ben locked the door behind him, handed me little Ben and immediately dropped to his knees on the steps. He did not even have the strength left to stand up anymore. It seemed like every ounce of energy had been drained right out of him. I begged him to let me call for a doctor, but he wouldn’t. He refused to let the others see him like this. I helped him crawl into bed, and did as much as I could to make him comfortable, but each breath that he drew only wracked his body with pain. When I asked him what part of him hurt the worst, he looked at me with those beautiful gray-green eyes of his, filled with agony and said ‘all of it’. He reached over and took hold of my hand, placing it over his heart, and letting me feel each and every shallow breath that escaped his lungs. We knew that he probably wasn’t going to make it through the night. I held his hand and couldn’t stop crying. Through my tears, I kept doing my best to persuade him to let me get help, but he just wouldn’t have it. I begged and begged. Then he started to ramble on, about little Ben, saying that one day, his child was going to change the world, but he had to be protected, because there were people coming for him. They wanted to take him away from us to somewhere far away where we never would see him again. When I asked who ‘they’ were, he wouldn’t answer me, but instead, asked me to bring his son to him. I wanted to refuse and tell him no… I didn’t want him to see his father like this, but one look into Ben’s eyes and I knew that I couldn’t resist him. It was his right to hold his child and take comfort from him. He held little Ben so tightly against his chest that I thought he was going to break his ribs. Little Ben started to cry, upset because daddy was hurting him, and I tried to pull him away, but even though he was sick, Ben just kept squeezing him tighter and tighter. As little Ben’s cries became louder and louder, Ben looked up at me with the most intense look that I had ever seen in my entire life and said ‘don’t take him away from me’. Hearing little Ben’s screaming from outside, the door to the bus was forced open, and Aaron and Keith walked in and saw what was going on. Keith pulled me away from Ben as Aaron forcibly took Ben’s son from his arms and took him away, exiting the bus with haste. The moment little Ben was gone, was the same moment when Ben drew his last breath. Keith made a comment that it seemed like he was holding onto his child with his very life, and the moment he was gone, so was Ben.”

“I remember hearing about it on the news after a show.” Ron said as he reached for his pain pills. Rhiannon’s story had obviously upset him and the thought of taking the edge off with medication seemed like a good idea. As he reached for a can of beer, Adam shook his head at him and offered him a bottle of water he had been carrying instead. Ron took it begrudgingly. “Everybody was shocked and completely blown away by it. We were all hoping it wasn’t true. Ben had been making music for over twenty years and had influenced so many young musicians in his time; to think him gone was unbelievable. He was a good man. It still doesn’t feel real.”

Adam crossed his legs and leaned back on the chair casually, ignoring Ron’s sympathetic comments. He wanted to know why Rhiannon had come to them; she was a strong willed woman, and wouldn’t just come for sympathy, she had thousands of followers who could easily give her that. “Are you saying that Ben’s death is somehow linked to little Ben’s kidnapping, and he knew that it was going to happen?” He asked, getting right down to the point.

“Yes. Absolutely, and it all ties into that book that someone stole from the house here, the one which Ben read and got all those crazy ideas from…only they aren’t crazy. It’s true, everything in there is true. Dustin and Brock both died for what was written in those pages. Before we left for Ben’s funeral, Crystal started acting strange; she said that she felt as though someone was watching us. She had been having bad headaches and blackouts a few weeks before, so no one paid any attention to her insane ramblings. When we arrived at the church and I stood up to go see my husband for the last time, she grabbed my wrist and whispered to me that ‘they’ were here. I quietly asked her who ‘they’ were and she simply answered ‘the ones who are coming for little Ben.’ The look in her eyes was the same one that I saw in Ben’s eyes the night that he died. I immediately instructed her to take little Ben outside, I didn’t want to cause a commotion in a church full of people waiting to pay their respects, and went to say goodbye to Ben. You both were there, you know what happened next.”

“She lost him.” Ron mumbled.

“Yes.” Rhiannon lowered her head down, as a wave of guilt overcame her. “I should never have trusted her with something so precious to me…but I was afraid. Without Ben here, I was so lost and didn’t know what to do. It seemed like a good idea at the time, and every day since I have regretted that decision.”

Adam sighed. “Stop blaming yourself. You didn’t know that she would lose him, no one did.”

“She won’t speak to me anymore. I’ve tried contacting her, but she never returns my calls. I’ve gone over to her house, and she turns all the lights off.” Rhiannon frowned and in the dim light she seemed much older than she actually was. “I just want an answer from her, that’s all. I think that I am entitled to it. I remember running down those steps and watching the woman in the black coat drive away, with my son tucked under her arm and as I did, the image of the woman who had found Ben drunk that night came popping into my head. It was the same person, it had to be. Somehow, she had been watching us for three years, waiting for the perfect opportunity. Crystal was just a scapegoat in the end, someone for us to temporarily place blame on. I think that the woman in the coat did something to Ben that made him ill, the night that he was drunk, planning on eventually sneaking in and taking Little Ben away from us after he was born. But what she didn’t bargain for was Ben fighting the poison or whatever it was she put in his blood for so long. She had to wait for his body to give out, and that took exactly three years. He fought so hard…” Rhiannon’s eyes filled with tears and she forcibly wiped them away and took a breath. “I have a feeling she’s still out there, somewhere close, with my son, and I want to go get him back, but I can’t go alone.”

“It is a pretty unbelievable story, Rhiannon.” Adam said gently. He knew that Benjamin’s death along with the others had impacted them all greatly, and with the kidnapping on top of it all, Rhiannon was losing her mind. Worry began to set in. She seemed desperate and anxious, and he also knew that this mix of emotions could lead to someone doing something drastic. He had to try to talk some sense into her and bring her back to reality. “Maybe we can just wait here till the storm is over, and then all go together to the police with this information. It will give you time to clear your head and think logically.” He smiled at her and reached for her cup. “I’ll get you some more tea; you can dry off and maybe even stay the night. Ron’s got some really good movies we can watch, or if you want, we can simply sit and listen to music.”

Quickly rising to her feet, Rhiannon pulled the cup away from Adam’s extended hand and threw it across the room, where it crashed against the floor into several pieces. “No!” She pointed to the window. “My son is out there! He needs me. And if you won’t go with me, then I will just go alone. Fuck both of you! The two of you are no better than the rest of Ben’s band. You all lost someone special to you, and yet all you’re doing is sitting here feeling bad for yourselves. My husband was murdered, his killer took my child, and it all has something to do with the book that Dustin and Brock were killed for.” Walking across the room, she grabbed Ron’s flight jacket off the back of a chair. “I am starting to think that the Starset Society is a bunch of bullshit, run by losers who don’t even believe in what they are preaching in the first place. If you really cared, you wouldn’t be sitting there staring at me like that! You’d believe and want to help me.”

Adam hurried over to her, ignoring Ron who was struggling to rise to his feet. “You know that we’d help you in whatever way we can, Rhiannon, Ben was our friend too, but this idea of running out there blindly isn’t going to work. Come sit down with us and we will figure something out, I promise.”

“48 hours.” She said, not even bothering to look up at him. “They say that if you don’t recover a missing child in the first 48 hours after he was taken, that the chances are that he’s not coming back and you’re looking for a body.” Emotion started to overwhelm her and she turned away, putting her hand on the door handle. “I lost the love of my life---my husband… half of my world has been shattered. I can’t let the other half be taken away from me… I just can’t. I’ll die.”

Reaching out, Adam put a hand over hers which was holding onto the door handle and pulled it away. She turned toward him and he drew her into his arms, embracing her tightly against his chest as she started to cry. “It’s alright. We will get him back, somehow. I promise.”

With an ungraceful stagger, Ron made his way over to them, clutching tightly on his cane as he moved through the room and took the flight jacket out of Rhiannon’s arms. He exchanged glances with Adam for a moment, and then slipped the jacket on. “What do you think you are doing?” Adam asked, curiously.

“I am going out there, to help her find little Ben.”

“What? You can barely even walk on your own! How do you expect to even get out the door without assistance?” Adam scolded him. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just get back to the couch over there… I’ll go with her.”

“Nice try buddy, but you just said that you want all of us to stay here to Netflix and chill. I know exactly what you are thinking, and that is you feel the need to play a hero here, but the world doesn’t need another martyr Adam, it needs people to stand together and draw their strength from one another as a group.” Ron shook his head. “We’ve had enough people trying to be heroes and look where it’s got them. I can’t let you go out there… I won’t lose another friend.”

Adam smiled and pulled his own jacket off the coat rack. “We’re not losing anyone else, I promise. Who am I to tell a mother that she can’t go look for her son? We’ve got to do everything that we can before it’s too late. I might not totally believe the story, but in the end, does it really matter? Rhiannon I am sorry, what you need right now is a friend and I am not really helping things by not supporting you. I will do whatever it is that you need.” He gave her a light smile. “Ron, you should just stay here by the phone in case the police call.” He pulled the thin material on over his shoulders and gave him a pat on the back. “Besides, you’ve been shot, and run down by a motorcycle, so I think you’ve paid your dues enough, and I like to know that you’re safe here. It would be one last thing on mind to worry about.”

Pulling away from him, Rhiannon wiped her tears away and turned toward Adam. “You’re really going to help me look for him?”

Nodding, Adam smiled at her. “I couldn’t help Dustin when he needed me the most. I felt so useless and could do nothing but watch as that person came into our home and took the lives of two of the best people I have ever met in my life. He’s been trying to warn us that something like this might happen, but we all thought that his ‘message’ was just a way to tryto sell albums. We were so wrong. These people who took little Ben need to be stopped… and if I sit here and do nothing, that’s the same thing as helping them.”

Rhiannon exhaled and nodded to him. Finally, she was going to get help. Her son was out there, she was certain of this, and she knew that one way or another she would find him.

Together, Adam and Rhiannon searched through the streets in the pouring rain, starting at the church and following the path that the kidnapper had driven on their motorcycle. Adam had grabbed an umbrella and was trying his best to shield Rhiannon from the rain, but she was walking too fast for him to keep up, making it completely useless. Following a few paces behind her, Adam looked through every dark alley and storefront, hoping to find some sign of the missing child, but there was nothing but trash and fading hopes. Rhiannon walked on with purpose, almost as if being drawn by some unknown force through different paths and roads, each leading up to the bridge where the bike had gone off the edge. Back and forth they went together, tracing the path over and over for hours with the same result. Adam’s feet were sore and soaked with the water from the puddles as he trudged on, trying to speak to Rhiannon, but she never responded to him. The storm seemed to intensify with lightning illuminating the dark sky, when Adam decided that they had to call the search off. He knew how physically exhausted he was, and assumed that even though she was running on pure adrenaline, Rhiannon probably was too, but just didn’t notice it. The temperature was starting to drop, and their wet clothing offered them no protection from the howling winds that were slowly creeping into the area.

They had made it back to the bridge for the 15th time when Adam finally spoke up, calling out to her from behind. “Hey, Rhiannon…this storm is getting bad now, we’ve been out here for hours, how about we take a break and head home to get dried off? We can get a few hours of sleep and then come right back out here when the sun comes up.”

Rhiannon turned around, her wet hair cascading down her shoulders in clumps, her make-up smeared and running down her face, and her damp clothing hanging from her thin body with a tremendous weight. She was crying, she had been crying the entire time that is why she never spoke to Adam during their search. “I can’t do it! I don’t want to let him go, Adam. I can’t. I just… can’t.” Something inside of her finally gave out and she dropped down to her knees, sobbing on the side of the road.

Running over, Adam held the umbrella over her and came to kneel beside her, surprised by this unexpected outburst of emotion. “Hey…no one is asking you to let him go. Just because we can’t find him doesn’t mean that you have to lose hope…Hope is something that no one can take away from you. Running yourself down like this isn’t the way to hold on, you are going to get weaker, and that hope will be fading. Little Ben needs you to be strong for him. Come back with me, I promise that we can start again as soon as the storm lets up. You don’t have to give up.” He waited expectantly hoping that his words were somehow able to reach her.

Wiping her tears away with the water logged cuff of her jacket, she slowly nodded to him. There was something in Adam’s voice that was strong and comforting, and she knew that being out in the storm was a lost cause. Her son would be kept away someplace warm and dry. He would have his favorite teddy bear and a bedtime story book with him. These thoughts were all that she had to cling to.

Shielding her from the rain, he pulled out his cell phone to call for a taxi, as she leaned in against him, trying to get warm. She heard him speaking loudly to the dispatcher, his voice muffled by the wind and a occasional crack of thunder off in the distance. How far had they wandered away from the beach house? The distance seemed tremendous; she couldn’t remember walking, her mind was far away in another place. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then heard a very small voice whisper to her. “Rain, rain go away…” Her eyes shot open and she sat up looking around in a mad fit of desperation. She tugged on Adam’s shirt, her fingers digging deeply into the fabric.

“Did you hear that?” She asked, her voice shaking.

Pulling the phone away from his face, he gave her a curious look. “Huh hear what?”

The quiet voice sang softly. “Come again another day…”

“THAT!” Rhiannon shouted, jumping to her feet. The sudden motion made Adam fall backwards and he dropped his phone in a puddle. The rain was now coming down in sheets, and mixing with droplets of ice that were slashing against his face. He struggled to hear her over the sound of passing cars on the bridge and the whipping winds that assaulted them.

“I don’t hear anything but the traffic.” He shouted. Adam stared at Rhiannon in confusion and a chill ran down his spine. Her gaze was unfocused and her eyes were madly darting back and forth, looking for the source of the mysterious sound that only she could hear. Her entire body was shaking, trembling from the freezing cold and he knew that this wasn’t a good sign. It was like she had lost her mind. Deciding to abandon his phone and forget about the taxi ride, Adam walked over to her and took hold of her hand, trying to lead her back off the bridge and towards the safety of a nearby sidewalk. “It’s just the wind, come on, let’s walk home.”

Pulling her arm back, Rhiannon’s small hand slipped out of his. “No! He’s here! I would know that voice anywhere, Ben’s here! He’s singing the song that daddy taught him.” She took a few steps out onto the road. The cars honked their horns angrily at her as they rushed by.

“Rhiannon, whatever you think you’re hearing it’s not Ben! I am sure of it. You’re just exhausted beyond belief.” Adam stretched his arm out for her while trying to hold onto the umbrella in the wind.

“…all the world is waiting for the son…” The voice called to her, ending the song with a bright childlike giggle. Turning away from Adam, Rhiannon looked to the other side of the bridge and her heart stopped for a second. Sitting there on the edge was her son, Benjamin, still wearing the same clothes that he had been dressed in from his father’s funeral, clutching a blue teddy bear in his arms. He waved to her and kicked his legs back and forth, teetering precariously on the edge. 

“Ben!” She looked back to Adam. “He’s right over there. He’s going to fall. I have to go to him!”

Following the direction which she was pointing, all Adam could see were the twinkling lights of the communication towers off in the distance, and nothing else. “There’s nothing there. It’s a hallucination. You're getting sick, we have to go!” He lowered the umbrella and took hold of her arm, grabbing it roughly and trying to pull her back. Looking down at Adam’s hand on her arm, Rhiannon shot him a angry glance and he let go, embarrassed. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“Don’t you ever touch me again!” She screamed at him. “Go home if you want! I am going to get my son.” Before Adam could even react, she turned on her heel and started to sprint out across the bridge, her eyes set and fixed upon something, not even paying any attention to the traffic.

Adam dropped the umbrella and started after her, but the moment he stepped forward, he was nearly clipped by a car and had to fall back. He watched helplessly, calling to her as she wove in and out between the vehicles, making her way to the opposite side of the bridge. Taking his eyes off her for a moment, Adam reached down into the puddle where his cell phone had fallen, trying to fish it out to call for help when he heard the screeching of tires and the sickening thump of a body hitting the pavement. He didn’t want to look up. All the traffic on the bridge stopped and a eerie calmness descended over everything, even the rain slowed down for a bit. Slowly, he stood back up, clutching the useless cell phone in his hand.

The driver got out of the car and ran around to the front of his vehicle, looking terrified and pale. All the other cars had stopped as well and their occupants were slowly getting out and rushing to his side. Everything was moving in slow motion. Adam made his way across the road on legs that were feeling wobbly, unsure whether or not he’d be able to remain upright for much longer. As he made his way past a van, the first thing he saw were the bright glaring headlights of the car that hit Rhiannon. The warm, almost comforting glow that they gave off was slightly obscured by drops of red blood slowly dripping down from them. Her body was sprawled out on the wet pavement, her eyes closed as the droplets of water fell down from the clouds above, and dripped down over her cheeks, making it look like she was crying. Rhiannon Burnley had run straight into the path of a oncoming car and had been hit head on.

At that moment, Adam’s legs gave out and he fell down to his knees just outside of the crowd of people that were surrounding her. He couldn’t believe what was happening. How could he let this happen to her? He was supposed to be keeping an eye on her, he came out here to make sure that she was safe. Why was she seeing her son? A thousand questions ran through his head all at once, and he struggled to make sense of it all. He heard the sound of sirens off in the distance, someone had called for a ambulance. He looked down at his cellphone in his hand, which was dark and unresponsive and let it drop to the ground. In the dim light, he could see that the rain water was mixing with blood, and it was slowly seeping away from Rhiannon’s body, pooling up in small rivers that were flowing out from underneath her. Grief started to overcome him. He had lost Dustin, Brock, Benjamin, Ben’s son and now Ben’s wife as well. Was this all some sort of insane cosmic joke? If it was, he was fucking done with it. How could he go back and tell Ron what happened? How could he face his friend again after this? Taking a breath, Adam closed his eyes for a moment and sat there, letting the rain wash over him. It felt cold, but refreshing. The sound of the raindrops hitting the pavement lulled him into a sense of calmness. Now he knew why Benjamin enjoyed the water so much.

The paramedics arrived on the scene and as they were assessing Rhiannon, suddenly her eyes shot open and she began to scream. It was the most blood-curdling sound that Adam had ever heard in his entire life. It chilled him right to the bone. She was still alive! He was back on his feet in seconds and sprinting over to her. As they attempted to put her onto the stretcher, she started to have a violent seizure, her body bouncing off the pavement with erratic, disjointed movements. Several passerby’s who had gotten out of their cars came over and helped to hold her down as the paramedics prepared a shot that would calm her down. Seeing the syringe full of drugs, Adam pushed his way through the crowd of people, ignoring their rude comments and cruel words as he ran past them. For some odd reason, he didn’t want them to sedate her, they had to be stopped. Sprinting as fast as he could, his efforts were in vain as the moment he broke free from the crowd, they had pushed the needle deep into her skin and injected the contents of the syringe. Almost instantly, her body calmed down and then relaxed back down onto the wet pavement. Suddenly someone grabbed hold of his shoulders and forced him back. Keeping his eyes focused on Rhiannon, he tried to move forward again to get to her, but the person wouldn’t let him move in any closer. Cursing, he shouted at the man holding him, his voice booming loudly through the rain and bursts of thunder, trying to make him explain that she was his friend. The stranger called for the police and they restrained Adam as Rhiannon was loaded into the back of the ambulance. As soon as she was set in, they let him go and he ran to the back door before they closed it. He could see her pale face, covered with streaks of red blood and the small drops of rain water as they dripped off her fingertips. Slowly, she opened her eyes, looking straight at him and pulled the plastic mask down away from her face with a trembling hand. “That’s not my son. It's someone...something else.” Before she could say another word, the paramedics slammed the door shut and quickly drove away, leaving Adam alone with the crowd of people who were starting to dissipate.

Looking around at the scene before him, Adam felt confused. It was only supposed to be a search for a few hours, to make Rhiannon feel better and give her a little comfort that she was doing something to save her son. No one was supposed to get hurt. How could things have escalated so quickly? The sound of a horn blaring startled him out of his thoughts and he stepped aside as a tow truck came into remove the vehicle that had hit Rhiannon. The front of it was crumpled and turned inward from where her body had struck it, and even with the pouring rain, there were still splashes of her blood flecked over the cracked windshield. As the car was loaded up and taken away, Adam noticed something lying in a puddle near the side of the bridge, where Rhiannon had supposedly seen her son. Quickly dodging the oncoming traffic, he made his way over to it and looked down to the ground. There half-submerged in a pool of stagnant, muddy water was a blue teddy bear.

Soaking wet from the storm that was raging endlessly around me, I made my way quickly to the entrance of Eden. The base had been overrun with Carnivores after the attack and subsequently raided by Aaron’s men from Dawn after the demolition of the Everything Machine. There were still signs of the attack as far as the eye could see. Most of the paths had lush, green plants starting to grow over them, but upon closer inspection, I could see the remnants of a bit of black fabric flapping in the breeze that was embedded deeply in the dirt, the obvious and grim reminder of the final resting place of one of the disgusting creatures. Finding one of the side doors that had been left slightly ajar, I stepped inside, glad to be out of the wind and rain, and flashed my light around the interior corridor right in front of me. Even though the base was abandoned, it was still in relatively good shape, almost inhabitable, if it weren’t for the large tree roots and vines that cracked into the wall, shattering the concrete. After the machine had been destroyed, the planet went into a temporary ‘reset’ causing a lot of the vegetation to grow at a rapid pace, thus creating a lot of problems with the permanent structures and Eden was no exception.

As I made my way around the dark halls, I couldn’t help but to remember my first memories of this place, and the horrible attack on Dr. Weis by Thomas. It felt like it was almost a lifetime ago. I never thought that Thomas would end up being one of my best friends, and most trusted companions. At first there was this tremendous jealousy and rivalry between the two of us, but as time passed, we were able to overcome it and move on…and now here I was, looking for him in the very place where we first met.

After about 30 minutes of searching, I started to notice that the branches and vines that once were creeping across the walls, dripping wet with condensation were now dry and cracking. My foot crunched over a thin blanket of dead leaves as I proceeded further, deeper into the base. Here in the depths, the darkness seemed to feel a little thicker, and the walls a little closer. Willing myself to keep moving forward, I soon came across a large ‘observation’ room that was eerily similar to the one that was in Burnley’s F.E.C. base. I couldn’t remember this room being here before, but my time in Eden was rather limited, so it was possible that I had never made it in this far.

Curious, I pushed the doors open and was immediately assaulted by the smell of death and decay. I turned away for a moment, gagging on the putrid scent and then heard a woman’s voice call to me. “Dustin Bates. I never thought that I would see you, of all people here…I was hoping for…someone else.” The doors slammed shut behind me, and I looked up to the center of the room where a blond woman was standing. I took a few steps forward to get a better look at her, and my heart started beating at a rapid pace. She was naked, except for a semi-transparent plastic sheet that was draped over her head which flowed all the way down to the floor and piled up in a mass of shadows at her feet. I couldn’t make any other details out except that she had long, blond hair and a small frame. “Either way…you are welcome.” She said quietly. The sound of her voice sent shivers down my spine.

“Who are you?” I asked, not quite knowing any other question to ask her. It was a insane idea that I was standing here, speaking to a naked woman in the first place, questions seemed irrelevant but necessary. 

Tilting her head to the side, I felt as though she was amused at my query. “You don’t remember me?” She stayed silent for a few seconds. I could pick up a note of sorrow in her voice. “I guess you wouldn’t. I can’t imagine that he would ever talk about me, too many memories long since forgotten…and of course it’s always taboo to speak of one’s former partners in current company.” She took a deep breath and I could just make out the slight movement of the plastic sheet shifting slightly over her body. It reminded me of a corpse. “Dustin…I am Benjamin’s wife, Rhiannon.”

I clutched the handle of the flashlight a bit tighter, not quite believing what I was hearing. I needed to feel the cold, hard steel in my hand to remind me that I wasn’t dreaming.“This can’t be real. How are you here? You died years ago on Earth.” I stammered, trying my best to keep my hands from shaking. This was the blond woman that Thomas had referred to in his dream, and now I knew why Ben didn’t want to come with us. He knew that she would be here and couldn’t face her. Why didn’t he warn us? Why was he hiding it? I had never known him to run away from anything.

“That’s what they told you, That’s what Ben told you.” Rhiannon’s voice echoed eerily off the massive walls that surrounded us. “The truth is that I did not die. There was an accident and I was taken away to a ‘private hospital’ where I was put into a medically induced coma to give my body time to heal and recover.” Her voice dropped. “Unfortunately, everything changed after the F.E.C. took control. Our friends…your friends, the ones who were looking after me had their own battles to fight, and sadly…I was one of the first causalities to the War on Falling Stars. They simply forgot about me.” She sounded so sorrowful that it was breaking my heart. I couldn’t imagine Ben letting her suffer and waste away, there had to be a reason why she was left behind. “I remained in a coma, complete oblivious to what was going on in the world outside until men came and took me away, disconnecting me from all the life-giving machines and attaching me to a visor of some sort. I was powerless to stop them. Trapped in my own body, but unable to move or cry out, all I could see was the three bars of light flashing brightly in front of my face flashing over and over, searing into my brain. It never ceased. The brightness bore into my skull and felt like it was cooking my head. I thought about Ben, about how much I missed him, and about my son, and how I had let them both down. I wished for death, day after day but it never came. Then one day as the years passed the light started to grow dim, giving me the much needed relief that I wanted, and I slept… It felt like the moment after you’ve been out in the sun all day, then finally come home to the sweet coolness of your bedroom, so dark and peaceful. This was my paradise, but as with all things, it quickly passed and without warning I started to feel the brilliance of those lights reflecting off my skin again and I started to see things. I saw Prox…I saw the Messengers, I saw the F.E.C. I saw Benjamin…I saw you… I saw my son...everything.” 

“You now about me and Benjamin then?” I asked, curious. There were a thousand other questions I should have asked first, but this was the one that came to mind first. 

Rhiannon blinked softly. “I do.”

I exhaled and relaxed just a little. She was aware of the fact that her husband and I were lovers now, and thankfully it didn’t seem to be an issue with her. I couldn’t let my guard down through, there was still something ‘off’ about her and I had to find out what it was. I found myself wishing that Ben was here with me. He would know exactly what to do. My mouth was drying out quickly and I was starting to feel nervous. I swallowed, trying my best not to let the anxiety shout that I was feeling now. If this really was Rhiannon standing before me, and if what she was saying was true, then because she was connected to a F.E.C. visor, it meant she was potentially dangerous. Suddenly I wished that I had some sort of weapon with me. I had to know how much that she knew. “You saw Burnley? Rhiannon, I am so sorry for how he turned out, I wish that things were different. Really. No one deserves to be parted from their child, or to watch him die.”

“Benjamin and I had been together since high school. We had been in love since our early teens, completely absorbed in one another. It was the two of us against the world. Then after little Ben came along, I felt as though some of that love shifted slightly. Ben didn’t love me any less, mind you, and I didn’t love him any less either, but instead both of our affections fell on the boy. He was everything to us. Do not feel sorrow for me Dustin. Even though you may have won the love of my beloved Benjamin, I take solace in knowing that there is still hope for me to be with my child.”

I took a few more steps forward. The last few words she spoke left me with a terrible feeling. “I am sorry to say that Burnley’s dead. He died in the F.E.C. base along with Brock. It exploded a year ago, and burned down to the ground. You’re son died there in the arms of my best friend. We tried to save them both but things got out of control and a lot of people were hurt. I wish I could go back and change things, maybe try to talk some sense into Burnley and try to make him turn away from the path that he had chosen.” I don’t know why I was so adamant about explaining Burnley’s death to her. I think that it was a moment of compassion; trying to soothe a mother’s wounds with comforting words. 

“You are correct. Both of their bodies died that day…but their spirits remained, trapped, bound together in the nothingness in which I reside. You know all about souls being bound together, don’t you? That is how you, Ben and Brock were able to come here to Prox. Thankfully, I was able to pluck Burnley’s soul out first and hide it away, someplace safe where no one could find it, until the time came when I could restore it to its former glory, in a new body. I had to wait though, and bide my time until one suitable became available…it’s not as easy as you would think, there aren’t any written instructions on how to do it, not even in the Prox Transmissions… I should know, I looked. Nevertheless I did not give up. It took me some time, but I discovered a way on my own and now the time is at hand when I can bring him back to life, so we can live again as we should… mother and child.”

I felt a pit opening up in the middle of my stomach. She knew about the book I had written, based on Thomas’s transmissions which had all the information about Prox, the Everything Machine, and the Carnivores. I had given the book to Selene to take away from the Shallow Bay. How could Rhiannon know about it? It took me a few moments to process what she was saying about bringing Burnley back to life, and then it hit me all at once.“Oh my god…you’re talking about Lizzie and Thomas’s son, baby Benjamin, aren’t you? You want to place Burnley’s soul inside of it so he can be reborn.”

Rhiannon nodded, the plastic crinkling loudly in the large, open room. “Yes, exactly, but I need your help. You see, I do not have a physical form yet. Something is preventing me from stepping out of the corporal world and into Prox…but that will soon pass. If you can bring the child here to this place, to me, then I can deposit Burnley’s soul into the infant and we can be together.”

My hand went up to my chest, and I gently touched the plastic guitar pic that was hidden underneath my shirt. “It’s Brock, isn’t it? Somehow he’s stopping you from going through with your plan. He doesn’t want Burnley to come back to life. You took both of their souls away that night, but Brock fought you, and now he’s trying everything he can, including invading Thomas and Ben’s dreams to warn us.”

“I can see why my husband is so infatuated with you; you’re a clever man Dustin.” Rhiannon laughed. “Once again, you are correct. I only wanted to take Burnley’s soul, but it has become so intertwined with Brock’s that it was almost impossible to separate them without losing them both… but I found a way to do it. It’s sad, really. I do believe that they truly loved one another, but the love of a mother for her child is a hundred times stronger than anything else. I ripped them free from one another, but Brock was able to elude me, and find a way to take physical manifestation for a short time, that is how you saw him at the wedding. Of course this took up most of the energy that he had and when he returned to the darkness, I was able to find him and start picking away at what was left. It’s not hard to wear him down. All I have to do is make him relive the last night of his life over and over. All that anguish and heartbreak comes flooding back in like a tidal wave. That fateful night, he felt such an awful array of emotions that it is almost inhuman to think about making him go through them so repetitively, but sadly it’s a necessary evil. Brock is a strong willed person, not just anyone can break him, although… you did. Every day, as he grows weaker, I grow stronger, and soon I will be able to do as he has done and walk on Prox. I really feel for you, Dustin… Brock felt that he wanted to see you one last time, to say goodbye, and that is what weakened him, allowing me to become aware and step out of the prison that once held me. It must hurt to know that.”

I could feel a pit forming in the bottom of my stomach. Once again, none of this would be happening if it wasn’t for me. Brock wanted to give me one final goodbye, to make sure that I was going to be okay, and in doing so, fell victim to having his soul slowly devoured, forced to relive the same night of torment over and over again. I couldn’t imagine the horror that he was going through. Even in death, he was doing whatever he could to protect us his friends, and in a way I hated and resented him for that. Rhiannon’s plan was insane, and I knew that even though Brock had issues with Benjamin and myself, he loved Lizzie like a sister, and he would protect her children, just like they were part of his own family…like us. I balled my hand up into a fist. “I am not going to take Lizzie’s child away from her!”

“I could have easily chosen another child, but when baby Benjamin was born, I felt something and I knew that it had to be him. His body would be the one to receive Burnley’s soul. He has a connection to that child, can’t you feel it? Can’t you see it every time that child looks up at you?” Rhiannon asked in a mocking tone.

“Yes!” I shouted back at her. “I know that Burnley raped Lizzie before he turned her into a Carnivore. It was a sick and sadistic gesture just to punish her, but it doesn’t matter now, none of it does. It’s over.”

“In the nothing, we can’t take physical form, but we can whisper, speak and influence others through dreams. How much would it hurt Lizzie to know the truth of what happened that night? I can easily lift the thin veil that was placed in her mind and let her see the memories that have been hidden from her for a year. How do you think she’d be able to cope, all alone, if these memories came flooding back all at once.”

“You wouldn’t!” I screamed. Somehow my voice seemed so shallow and weak compared to hers.

“I could…but I won’t. Even though I do not have any love for that woman, she is, after all the mother of my child, and I won’t tap into her unless I absolutely have to. We can have her bolting off and doing something drastic. I have another way of persuading you to help me.” With a quick flourish of her wrist, she drew back the sheet of plastic that was crumpled up at her feet, enshrouded in darkness, taking a step back. I cried out in horror. There kneeling at her feet, shackled to the floor with thick irons was Thomas. He looked up at me and I could see that there was a gash on the side of his head at his hairline which was still oozing a tremendous amount of blood, an obvious sign that someone had attacked him. There was a leather gag tied around his mouth, and above it, resting over his eyes was a three bar translucent visor. He was in the kneeling position, sitting on the back of his legs, with his arms outstretched and unseeing, unfocused eyes staring right at me. He wasn’t blinking or moving.

“Thomas!!” I shouted and ran over to him. Rhiannon stepped out of the way, with her long train of plastic following her, hissing loudly as she dragged it across the floor. I dropped to my knees and tried to pull the visor off of him, but the moment my fingers touched it, there was a bright flash and then the sickening smell of burnt flesh. I glanced down at my fingertips and saw that they were burnt and seared through several layers of skin, almost down to the bone. The smell of my own burning flesh invaded my nostrils and made me sick.

Rhiannon spoke softly from behind me. “A safety measure, to prevent… tampering… because we all know what happens when the devices are prematurely removed.”

“What have you done to him?” I asked, my voice filled with fury and rage.

Looking back over her shoulder, Rhiannon shifted slightly underneath the plastic sheet. “Nothing... He’s merely in a state of stasis, waiting patiently for your decision. He can see and hear everything that we’ve said, but until I free him, he will remain in this state. What happens to him next, is completely in your hands now, Dustin. That visor that he is wearing is a very powerful thing. It has one purpose, which is to inflict immense amounts of pain on the person wearing it, while putting their body in a state of suspended animation indefinitely. In other words, I can keep Thomas ‘alive’ for as long as I want without medical intervention and inflict the most excruciating amounts of pain on him. Can you imagine ten, twenty, thirty years of being trapped in your own body, unable to move or interact with people, dreading the moment when all that agony is unleashed on you over and over again? How long do you think it would take before he would break, and his brain would shut down?”

I glared at her. “You bitch! Let him go!”

“He’s a pretty strong young man, I bet that I could make this go on for a very, very long time...but it doesn’t have to be this way. All I ask is that you return to the Shallow Bay and bring me the child. Deliver him here to me and you and Thomas can both walk free. You can go back to your life of bliss with Benjamin. By that time, I will be free of my bonds and will disappear with my son, never to be heard from again. We won’t bother you Dustin. The F.E.C. is gone, Prox is saved, you’ve tasted a year of happiness that was so sweet, it was everything you’ve ever wanted. Do as I ask and it can be yours again.”

I couldn’t help but to stare at the bars of light that pulsed through the transparent visor. They were so bright and almost mesmerizing to watch. I reached out and took hold of one of Thomas’s shackled hands, holding it in mine. A tear formed in the corner of his eye and slipped down his cheek. I could almost feel his anguish. He could see and hear everything that was going on around him.“I can’t do it. I can’t take a child away from Thomas and Lizzie. He’s not a thing that can be passed back and forth, he’s a child, a baby who hasn’t even had the chance to live yet. You might think he’s the perfect vessel to deposit Burnley’s twisted, fucked up soul in, but you’re so wrong if you think it’s the perfect fit. That child will grow up to have a life and a personality of his own. He will be taught right from wrong and not be under anyone’s influence but that of his parents. I will not let you take him away.”

Rhiannon turned around and came to stand behind Thomas. I was so close to her that I could see the thick, blue veins which ran up and down her legs and arms underneath the plastic sheet which covered her. Her eyes were dark and sunken in, along with her cheekbones. She looked like more of a corpse in its death shroud than anything else. Reaching out, she brought the palms of her hands to both sides of Thomas’s temples, and a bright bolt of blue electricity crackled and formed between them, flowing out from her fingertips into the visor. Immediately, Thomas began to scream, but he was still gagged and those screams were nothing more than muffled cries as his body was wracked with pain. Tears streamed down his eyes and I could see that his fingers were curled into claws of anguish. “Stop this Rhiannon, for fucks sake please stop this!”

“Give me your word that you will bring me the child, and I will.” She sneered at me.

I shook my head. “No! I won’t do it.”

Flexing her fingers, Rhiannon took a deep breath and then moved them closer to Thomas’s head. The electricity turned from blue to a bright purple and intensified, along with his screams. “Dustin---I’ve suffered through so much. I lost my husband and my son… and was locked away for years, completely forgotten about. Do you know how that feels to be aware of the fact that everyone that you once knew and loved simply forgot that you existed? It’s a terrible feeling. I had no one! I lived my life for Benjamin… I gave him everything I had, and in the end, it wasn’t enough to save him… and then… I lost his son. I let him down, I let them both down. Now’s my chance to reclaim what is rightfully mine. You can have the man, but I want that child.” She turned her gaze toward Thomas at her feet. “How much longer will you let him suffer?”

Before I could answer her, I heard the doors behind me open up and a icy coolness fill the room. I instantly started to shiver and I could see my breath crystallize in front of my face. Rhiannon stopped her assault on Thomas and took a step back away from him, and as his body started to sink down onto the ground, I caught it in my arms. Thomas took a breath and then his eyes closed; he had passed out from the pain. I could hear the soft padding of boots on the floor behind me, and I turned around slightly to see the figure that entered the room. It was Brock. My heart felt like it was going to explode right out of my chest.

Rhiannon spoke softly to him. “How many more times are you going to interfere with me Brock?”

Motionless, he stood before Rhiannon, a look of defiance on his face. I couldn’t help but to notice that he did not turn to look at me. “What you are planning on doing isn’t natural. No one should have the power to manipulate another person, living or dead. All Burnley wanted is to leave this awful place and forget about all the things he had done, he wanted nothing more than the solace and peace that only death can offer him. What you are planning on doing is against the natural order of things. The F.E.C. made him unstable and unpredictable. If you bring him back, there is no telling what is going to happen to him. Let him be at peace, don’t drag him back into this world. I will do whatever it takes to stop you, for as long as I can. Even if it means losing my soul. I’d rather just fade away into the nothing than sit back and watch you take away the life of an innocent child, just to get your own back.”

“HE BELONGS TO ME!” Rhiannon shouted. “I loved him first and he is mine. I don’t give a fuck about what the F.E.C. did to him. He is still my child, and has a chance at another life. I won’t let anything stand in my way.”

Brock shook his head. I could see that there was incredible strength in his eyes, and it filled me with hope. I had never seen him so focused and driven before. It reminded me of the fierceness that Ben had, the unfaltering courage to never give in or back down from anything, even in the toughest circumstances. “Are you so hell bent on getting Burnley back that you can’t see that you are going to be killing another child in the process? That little boy will never become your son. You have to let Burnley go.”

“I will never let him go. His soul, and yours too Brock are mine to do with as I please!” Rushing back over across the room with lightning speed, Rhiannon made her way back over to where Thomas and I sat on the floor. With her arms outstretched I could see that she was coming right at us. I held onto Thomas with all that I had. I could not let her touch him again. She was upon us in a half of a second. Her fingers arched and I could see the first silvery spark of electricity form there. I clutched his body to mine, trying my best to shield him from the onslaught and then was aware of Brock standing between us. As Rhiannon reached down, he grabbed her and pushed her with a unyielding force of immense strength that sent her reeling backwards and down onto the floor, where she collapsed. For a moment, she remained motionless; nothing more than a dead corpse waiting to be hauled away for burial, and then she slowly pushed herself up into a semi-sitting position, the plastic sheet still wrapped around her. “You are such a fool, Brock. Once again you’re wasting yourself on someone who doesn’t deserve you. What a pity.” She shook her head and gave him a sympathetic look. “Do whatever you want, keep fighting me if you will, because we both know that you’re growing weaker and weaker by the minute…and the moment you cease to exist, I will be free, and I won’t need anyone to bring the child to me. I will be able to take him myself…and if it comes to that, you can rest assured that I will kill anyone who dares stand in my way.” As the last of her words echoed through the room, there was a bright light, and then suddenly she vanished, leaving only the plastic sheet crumpled up in a pile behind.

The room was deathly silent. The only sound was that of Thomas’s labored breathing in my arms. I looked down at him and saw that he was twitching slightly as the residual energy was absorbed into his body. Reaching up, I brought my fingers close to the visor, attempting to take it off, but as soon as they drew near, I could feel the device start to heat up and go into self-defense mode. I couldn’t remove it. I looked over to Brock, who had his back turned to me. He was wearing the all too familiar black flight jacket that Burnley had given him and was staring down at the empty plastic sheet at his feet. “It’s good to see you again, Brock.” I whispered. My head and heart were filled with conflicting emotions, both fighting to control my words and actions. Seeing him here, knowing that he was dead and I was only talking to a ghost filled me with sorrow. I did in fact love him once very much, but now I found myself searching desperately for even a shred of that emotion and I was coming up empty. What had happened to me to make me feel this coldness towards him? Was this what it was like to move on? If it was, then I didn’t like it. I wanted those warm, tender feelings back. I wanted to love him. 

“We don’t have time for this. You have to go quickly.” Brock didn’t even bother to turn around and look at me as he spoke. “Leave this place and get back to the Shallow Bay as fast as possible. Get Benjamin and bring him back here as fast as you can.”

“What? No Brock. I am not leaving Thomas here. What if she comes back? He’s injured and needs help. I am not going anywhere without him. Besides, I couldn’t tell Lizzie that I left her husband here, with shackles on his wrists, tied down to the floor with a fucking visor attached to his head. She’d lose her mind.” I looked to Thomas who was starting to come around. There was a question on my lips, but I was afraid to ask it. I didn’t want to know the answer, I was afraid of it. So I asked something else instead. “Why Benjamin?”

Brock walked away from the place Rhiannon had been and started pacing, always keeping distance between us. “She’s right. I am weakening. I can feel it…the life…slowly ebbing me away. Every single time that I interfere with her, I start to lose more and more of myself. If I fade away, there won’t be anything that stands in her way. I spent a whole month begging Benjamin to help me, and he kept refusing me…not because of you, Dustin, but because of her. She is the only thing that he fears. My pleas to him fell on deaf ears, which is why I was forced to go to Thomas.” Brock looked down to Thomas in my arms. “I had no other choice…it had to be done. I was really hoping that his actions in the matter would make Benjamin step in and take notice, not you. He’s the key to stopping her. Only he has the power to do it. I didn’t want you involved.”

I sat there, for what felt like an eternity, just trying to let everything sink in. None of this even seemed possible. We were supposed to have our happy ending, and now it was all getting complicated. I thought for a moment that maybe this year of peace wasn’t really meant to last; it was the calm before the storm, one last chance for us to enjoy a life that we could never have before giving up on it forever. Once again, I looked down at Thomas. The visor was still attached to his face, glowing with an unholy radiance. I didn’t want to think about Brock, I didn’t want to think about Ben. “These visors….”

Brock finally came close, bending down next to us, and hovered his hand over the visor. I could hear the crack of static electricity coming from within the device and see the criss-cross lines of scars that ran down over his knuckles and hand from where he had cut them. The scars would be there forever as a reminder of his own rage. He kept his face turned away from mine. “It’s just a torture device. It can’t brainwash people or steal their memories like we’ve seen before….but they can stop the body from aging. In theory, one could live forever while attached to this thing.”

“You have to help me get it off him and get us out of here, Brock. If she comes back….”

Standing up, Brock walked away from us. The temperature of the room started to feel a bit warmer now and it was easier to breathe. I couldn’t help but to wonder if it had something to do with Brock getting weaker. “Even if you could break those shackles he is tied down with, the visor can’t be removed by anyone except for the person who put it on there. Do you really want to take him back to the Shallow Bay, back to Lizzie with that thing attached to him? It’s a bad idea.”

I looked down at the visor and frowned. It was a risk taking him back to the Shallow Bay with it attached to him, we didn’t know if it had a tracking device in it or explosives hidden away in the power box. I would be putting everyone there in danger. There was no way that I could free Thomas on my own with the limited amount of gear that I had, either. “What do I do?” I asked quietly.

“I have enough strength left to look after Thomas until you return, but you have to hurry. I don’t know how long I can hold out and keep her at bay if she decides to return so you need to act fast. Go back to the Shallow Bay and find Benjamin, explain to him what is going on and bring him back here. He will know what to do; he’s the key to everything.”

Taking a long, deep breath, I gently placed Thomas down onto the floor. His breathing had become regular now and a gentle sleep had overtaken him. Rising to my feet, I tried my best not to run across the room and pull Brock into my arms and embrace him. When I looked at him, all I could see was the look of anguish on his face when he walked away from me that night. It was a memory that would haunt me for the rest of my life. I was still trying to find even the tiniest bit of affection that I had for him inside of me. I felt hollow and empty without it. Instead, I picked up the messenger bag that I had brought with me and clutched it tightly in my hands. “Brock?”

“Yes, Dustin?”

“You never answered my question. Why Ben?”

Brock hesitated for a moment, and then slowly turned around, his soft brown eyes falling on mine for the first time and I could see that they were filled with sorrow. “Nightmares aren’t actually the worst dreams you can have. Waking up after a dream about something you deeply desire just to realize that it was a dream and you can’t make it a reality is far more heartbreaking. Dustin…you need to wake up…now. Your dream is over. You must realize that Benjamin isn’t what you think he is. He is the Shepherd of the Damned.”

Aaron and Ben had been traveling for a few hours in silence as the storm raged on outside of the vehicle, pounding massive amounts of water against them with an unrelenting force. Sitting in the driver’s seat, Aaron made several attempts to make conversation with Benjamin, but he didn’t seem to be overly concerned with taking part in idle banter. As they drove on, Ben kept his eyes focused and fixed on the terrain ahead of them, watching the rain patter down on the windshield. Plagued by a month of sleepless nights, he could feel the fatigue start to set in, and a uncharacteristic weakness take hold of him. He was worried about Dustin and Thomas, off on their own heading into dangerous territory, but there was nothing he could do about it. The situation had gotten out of his hands, with Dustin insisting on going, and he knew that he could do nothing to prevent him from leaving. They had fought so hard for the life that they both wanted so badly, and now with one loose thread, it was all starting to unravel. Brock was always Dustin’s downfall, and Benjamin blamed himself for it. A lifetime ago, he had given up his own soul, so that Dustin wouldn’t have to give up his. It was a chance for him to find happiness with Brock, but it didn’t work out that way. Ben’s soul never went completely away, it remained, tied to Dustin’s, leaving him with a unhealthy yearning and love for that which he never could have. Eternally bound together, they were finally separated after Dustin, in a fit of despair, had taken his own life. Free once again, Benjamin was able to harness Dustin’s soul and bring it to Prox, and gain the mortality that he always had yearned for. It could be a new beginning for them…except for Brock. Benjamin never knew that Brock’s soul was intertwined so deeply with Dustin’s, and the small oversight is what caused the one other person that Dustin loved to be taken to Prox as well. Maybe it was fate that they all ended up together, repeating the same mistakes over and over. A life lesson with the same solution repeated in the most gruesome and heartbreaking manner. No matter what he did, Ben could never get Dustin to completely let go of Brock; it hurt him very deeply, and now it may possibly be putting him in the path of danger.

Leaning his head against the window, Ben closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the cool touch of the glass against his face when Aaron decided it was time to start talking again. “Look man, I know that you’re pissed off at me for not coming to you sooner about Selene’s note, but can we please just chalk it up to my stupidity and move on with it? I hate to see you sitting over there and sulking about it. I really didn’t know she was missing. Honestly.”

Ben kept his eyes closed. The sound of the rain comforted him. He was wishing that he had a cigarette and maybe a drink. The alcohol always took the edge off things and helped him forget about the pain for a short while. “I am not sulking, alright? I just don’t have anything to say to you at the moment, Aaron.”

Aaron hit a patch of rough terrain and downshifted the vehicle. “My dad would say that you were the silent type. ‘A good man with wise words, if you were fortunate to hear them’ I can see where he gets that from.” Aaron laughed. Seeing no response from Ben, he sighed. “Ben—why don’t you come to Dawn? I think it would be good for you. You’ve been putting it off for a year now, and there are people there who would very much like to meet you.”

“My home is in the Shallow Bay with Dustin, Thomas, Lizzie and the children. There is no need for me to leave them for an extended period of time for any reason. It is my duty to look after them. They are my life now. I don’t want or need anything else but them.” Ben replied in a hushed tone.

“I think it’s more than that.” Aaron said sternly, gripping the steering wheel. He knew from past experiences in dealing with Benjamin that it was never a good thing to push him, but today he was getting annoyed by his passengers’ passive aggressive attitude and wanted it to end. “I keep asking you to come as nicely as I can, and yet you keep giving me excuses. That’s just rude, Benjamin. My people have shown you nothing but kindness, sharing our supplies with you, helping to rebuild Prox with you, even giving Lizzie and the boys the medical attention they needed, and yet you keep blowing me off. I can’t take it anymore.”

Benjamin slowly opened his eyes and sat up in his seat, turning towards Aaron. “Listen here, you arrogant jerk. If I choose to not to go to Dawn, then that’s my choice. We never asked for your help, you threw it upon us. I don’t know why you want me to go there so badly, but I can assure that it will never happen…and when we get back to the Shallow Bay, I want you and your men to pull out of our base, and not to return. Understand?”

“No. I don’t understand this sudden hostility. Where is it coming from?” Aaron asked, his voice wavering a bit. “It’s not just towards me, either Benjamin. I saw the way that you have been treating Dustin and Thomas too. You keep saying that they are your family, but you don’t treat family like that. You talk down to them, berate them and make them feel inferior. Rumor has it that you’ve been like this since you came back from the F.E.C. base and somehow Burnley put some of the Eden drug into your body, and even though you keep denying it, the evidence is right there in your eyes. It might be hard to see, but if you look close enough, you can find it. Whatever happened to you there hasn’t completely left you yet, and it’s eating away at you. All I want to do is help you.”

“What happened in that base is none of your fucking business, Aaron.” Benjamin reached forward and rolled the passengers side window down a crack, he needed some air. 

Aaron slammed on the breaks and put the vehicle in park, leaning back in his seat. “I am sorry. I keep making things worse between us instead of better, Ben. I’ll do whatever you want when we return, and our doors will always be open to you, just please don’t shut us out completely. We need to work together. I won’t bring it up again. Can we just be friends?” Extending his hand, Aaron once again smiled at Benjamin, waiting for him to take it. Awkward moments passed and Ben made no effort to accept his apology for his rash words.

“Why did you stop?” Benjamin asked, looking around. They were on a cliff high above a vast ravine with raging flood waters far below. Aaron had driven up a winding path that was almost too small for that type of vehicle; it was narrow and treacherous, having been more suited for a motorcycle or some other sort of small transport. There was nothing around for miles. 

“We’re here. These are the coordinates that was on Selene’s note.”

Using the sleeve of his leather jacket, Benjamin leaned forward and wiped the windshield free of condensation, and scanned the area. “There’s nothing here. I think that you may have put in the wrong coordinates.” Sitting back in his seat, he felt a pressure in his side and looked over to Aaron in shock, who had drawn a gun and was firmly shoving it into Benjamin’s flesh. “What the fuck are you doing? Are you out of your goddam mind?”

“Get out of the vehicle, Ben.” Aaron said quietly. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be for either of us, please.”

“You didn’t bring me all the way out here just to kill me, Aaron…that’s not your intention, because if it was, you could have done it anywhere. We didn’t have to drive for hours. So you need to put that away and fess up and come clean before I lean over there and choke the life right out of you for shoving that in my guts.” Ben scowled at him.

Aaron leaned over so close to Ben and put his lips on the man’s ear, whispering to him. “You are right, I don’t want to kill you, but you said that your family was back at the Shallow Bay, well, if you want to make it back to them, you’d better do what I ask you to, or else I will be forced to kill you. Please don’t make me go back there and tell Dustin that you’re dead, the news will destroy him.” He pulled the hammer of the old fashioned gun back, and the distinct sound of a bullet being loaded into the chamber could be heard over the rain tapping on the roof. “Please Ben. Get out of the vehicle.”

Staring at Aaron in defiance and rage, Benjamin did as he was told and stepped outside into the storm. The moment his feet hit the thick, wet mud, they started to sink in, and he had to take a few steps away, moving over closer to the edge of the cliff. As the wind was madly whipping about, Ben turned his head in the direction of the canyon, hearing a strange feminine voice carried in the breeze whispering to him. Aaron got out of the car at the same time and slowly approached him, with the weapon held tightly in his hand.

“I didn’t mean for things to go this far.” He said, his voice trembling as he shouted over the loud cracks of thunder. “I kept asking you to come to Dawn. If you could just have gone there, you would have seen, you would have known and you could have helped us. Now it’s too late and we’re all fucked. She’s making me do this because you’re a threat.” He raised the gun up higher. “I don’t want to do it. I respect you so much Benjamin, you are the kind of person and leader that I struggle to be every day…but I don’t have a choice, if I don’t do this she will kill everyone at Dawn, starting with my family. Ben… I have kids there and.... the others…there are people there that you know! People you’d want to protect!” Overcome with emotion, tears mixed with the rain, cascading down his face. “I have to do this, but I don’t want your blood on my hands. I couldn’t live with myself thinking that I was the one who took your life. Turn around Benjamin. Keep walking until your feet are free. The fall might not kill you, but the river below will. Just close your eyes and wait to hit the water. This is the easiest solution for both of us.”

Ben raised his hands up and instead of walking towards the edge of the cliff; he started slowly inching towards Aaron. His first instinct was to attack the young man, but the weakness left in his body led him to have doubts in his own strength. He would have to try and talk it out with him first. “Tell me what’s going on. Whatever it is, it’s not too late. I can help you.”

“No you can’t!!!!” Aaron shouted. “She’s insane, and it’s all my fault. I have to do what she says.”

“Who, Aaron?” Ben asked. The rain had soaked into his leather jacket now, chilling him to the bone and waking him up from his fatigue. The cold water felt refreshing on his skin. He was unusually calm. “Who are you talking about?”

Lowering the gun a bit, Aaron looked right at Ben in astonishment. “You know who! She’s been in your dreams for a month. The one who has Brock’s soul, your wife, Rhiannon.”

Benjamin whispered, lowering his arms and letting the cold rain wash over him. “It’s true then? How can she be here?”

Aaron nodded. “Yes, and it’s my fault. When we invaded the F.E.C. base, we found her in a state of stasis, with some sort of visor on her, but it was dark- in a state of hibernation. We didn’t think it could possibly be the real Rhiannon Burnley, but we brought up the records and all the proof was there. There was an accident, and she was taken away to a hospital and put into a medically induced coma. At some point, the F.E.C. got hold of her and hid her away. Everyone thought she died, when in fact, they transported her to Prox for some unknown reason and kept her in storage, just like a piece of furniture. We suspect that it might have been a back-up or contingency plan if they failed with Burnley. Who knows what those sick bastards were planning on doing with her? When we found her, we decided to move her back to Dawn, and try and wake her, but all our attempts were unsuccessful. That’s why I was desperately trying to get you to come there. We hoped that somehow you could be the one to bring her back to life. When you refused, our medical staff tried various methods, all of which failed, until one night, the visor turned on and she mysteriously came to life…but it wasn’t her, not really. She’s more of a…ghost… or spirit. She got into our computer systems and put the base on lock down, trapping our families in the deepest part with limited food and water.” Aaron looked at Ben with sorrowful eyes. “The first thing she made me do was recover the Prox Transmissions book from Dustin. I assumed that she wanted it because it had a wealth of information about the Prox and the F.E.C. in it. Basically it’s a blueprint for global dominance and destruction. Whoever has that book has a lot of power. Dustin should never have put that information down in print, it made him and everyone around him a target.” Aaron motioned with the gun, pointing it directly at Ben’s head. “Including you.”

Taking a deep breath, Ben stared down Aaron with cold, dark eyes. There was absolutely no light or color in them at all, it was utterly terrifying. He was motionless and stoic, almost like a predator waiting to devour its prey. “It’s not the book she is after. It’s something else.” Ben said in a commanding, strong voice. 

Seeing Benjamin looking at him… looking through him… like that, Aaron started to crumble. “We were all wrong. Benjamin, she doesn’t have anything to do with the F.E.C. There’s something even more powerful at work here… She’s a mother looking for a way to bring her son back! The only thing we know for a fact is that she is aware of Burnley being here on Prox, and everything that he’s done. In her mind, he’s still that sweet, innocent child that was taken from her. She will stop at nothing to get him back and give him a second chance.”

“Burnley perished in the F.E.C. base. There’s no way of getting him back. Brock showed me his death.”

“That’s what I tried to convince her of…but I made a crucial error, I mentioned that I had only seen one other person come back from the dead, and that was Lizzie, with the Carnivore technology that was detailed in the Prox Transmissions.” Aaron said as he wiped the water out of his eyes. “And then after that, she wanted that book more than anything.”

“No…Aaron, you didn’t!” Ben cursed underneath his breath. “You fucking gave her exactly what she wanted.”

“It was a mistake! And I am sorry. All I could think of was trying to find a bargaining tool to free my family. She told me that if I got her that book, she’d set them all free. I had to get it, but I knew that Dustin distrusted me, so I tricked Selene into bringing it to me instead. I lured her out here, with the promise that if she handed it over, the past could be changed or some other nonsense like that. You know her, she’s away trying to find a way to atone for her sins of the past, and she trusts people, so it wasn’t hard to manipulate her into getting it for me, but she refused to part with it; until she saw my face…I couldn’t let her run. If she did, she would run back to you and tell you all that I betrayed you. Benjamin—I needed you all to trust me. People that I love would be in danger if I failed. I had no choice. Selene put me in a very precarious position. I couldn’t let her go back knowing my identity.” Aaron stopped for a moment; he lowered the gun and brought his arm back down to his side, utterly defeated. There was remorse and regret in his eyes. “That’s when I shot Selene Bell. I didn’t want to…” He looked up at Ben. “I promise you, she didn’t suffer. It was over with quickly.”

“YOU MOTHERFUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!” Benjamin shouted, his voice ten times louder than the thunder, and ran forward slamming his fist right into Aaron’s midsection. The smaller man instantly toppled down to the ground, the gun dropping out of his hand and falling out of reach. Ben was on him even before he hit the dirt, sending one flying fist into his face after another, his eyes filled with immense rage. Trying his best to fight back, Aaron brought his hands up and lashed out, but his efforts were a waste of energy, Ben was flowing with hatred and adrenaline, an unstoppable force fully intent on bringing an end to Aaron’s life. “YOU MURDERED HER IN COLD BLOOD.” Each blow to the face sent a spray of blood onto the muddy ground, where it mixed with the rain water and started slowly ebbing away. Screaming out in fury and empowered by the massive storm raging around them, Benjamin’s sole purpose was to make this miserable brat feel as much pain as he could before he would end his life. “SHE DID NOTHING TO YOU!” Aaron’s face was a terrible mess of bruises and blood, which just kept getting worse with every punch. Benjamin’s wrath was terrible and appalling, but nothing could stop him from releasing vengeance on Aaron. Aaron’s body pitched underneath him, and each movement drove his from down into the mud, submerging it far down into the muck. He tried to reach up and catch hold of Ben’s fists again, but Ben caught both of Aaron’s wrist in mid air and gave them a quick twist, the bones instantly shattering and splintering into hundreds of tiny pieces underneath his skin. The blood sprayed out and hit Ben full in the face, a warm streaming red geyser of crimson pouring out. Letting out a scream of rage, Ben stopped for a moment to catch his breath, leaning his face upwards to the sky and allowing the to rain wash over him. Aaron’s arms fell down to the ground, completely useless. Struggling to calm himself Ben looked down and saw that Aaron was still alive. He was covered in mud and blood, but he was still breathing. “You’ll never betray anyone else again.” Pulling his arm back, Ben clenched his hand into a tight fist and prepared for the killing blow, when he felt a soft touch on his shoulder and he turned around for a moment to see Selene standing behind him.

With her long black coat flowing out from behind her, she reached forward and wiped a stain of Aaron’s blood off of Benjamin’s cheek. Her touch was colder than ice and burned his skin. “Benjamin. If you take his life…you know what will happen to you…you won’t be able to come back from it, it will be for eternity this time. Are you willing to give up everything that you’ve worked so hard for? Are you willing to give up Dustin? Think before you strike.”

“I can feel it inside me, it’s in my blood. I can’t fight it.” Benjamin whispered to her. 

The dark curls of Selene’s hair whipped about her pale face. “Yes you can. Please Benjamin, don’t become that which you hate the most. Fight it until there’s nothing left of you.”

Glancing down at Aaron again, Ben could feel him trembling underneath his body and started to see the terror in the dying man’s eyes. “….Benjamin…please…listen to me…” He tried to reach up to grab at Ben’s shirt, but his shattered arms refused to work and he only managed to get a finger or two to twitch. “….I don’t care about my…life…anymore… but you need… to stop her…. If she gets the child….she will kill.. it... only you.. can stop her...

Benjamin looked up from Aaron to Selene. “Rhiannon is going after the children?”

Selene remained silent and looked away from Benjamin. 

Arching his back, Benjamin closed his eyes, letting out a maddening scream into the night that echoed off the canyon walls. He grimaced in pain and hunched his shoulders, lowering his head slightly as a wave of pure agony surged through him. The rain poured down from the heavens and soaked into his leather jacket, making it cling tightly to his muscular frame. He could feel the shackles that he had once wrapped around himself shatter and fall free. There was an indescribable strength that pulsed in his veins, filling him with the lust and desire to punish the wicked. He had felt this power once before, a long time ago, in another life… but now, it was different, stronger perhaps. Slowly, he opened his eyes and set them on the Selene’s ephemeral form in front of him. She sighed and turned around, walking away from him and vanished into the void, letting the darkness take her. She couldn’t bear to look into those terrible amber colored eyes.

“When the hate becomes the high, pain is chosen when the devil comes alive.” High above, the clouds opened up, sending a torrential flood of rain down over the two men. It was if heaven itself was weeping. Flicking the blood off his hands, Benjamin smiled at Aaron and brought his fist down with a maddening force. There was a sickening thud upon impact and a bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky, shaking the plains for miles with a tremendous force. Aaron’s eyes focused on a single black feather slowly fluttering down to the ground, landing near his face. He could no longer scream.

Lizzie made her way down the corridor from the command room. She was tired and aching from sitting there for 8 hours watching the monitors and listening for communication from any of the men. The radio had been silent and she was starting to get worried. Unable to sit any longer, and concerned about her children, she summoned one of Thomas’s trusted men, a young man with incredible computer skills named Scott and asked him to take over for a few hours for her. He was more than happy to assist. The storm was growing stronger by the minute and the Shallow Bay was taking in local Prox civilians who were in danger of the rapidly rising flood waters, which led to a bit of confusion that she was unprepared for. After several anxious minutes, everything was sorted out and now Lizzie was looking forward to getting a little rest and seeing her boys.

Upon reaching the nursery, Lizzie noticed how eerily dark it was. It was only early evening, and certainly not time to put the boys down for the night. Feeling nervous, she pushed open the double doors that led to the monitoring station, where the nurse on duty greeted her with a warm smile. “Good Evening Mrs. Bell. I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

Lizzie looked to the empty cradles. “Where are Tristan and Benjamin?” she asked, the note of panic in her voice hard to disguise. “Where are my sons?”

“Umm… A blond woman came in about an hour ago and instructed me to take the children back to your private quarters. She said that she would be looking after them from now on. I thought that she was someone you knew.”

“Fuck! Call for security, have them meet me at my quarters! NOW!” Lizzie turned quickly on her heel and was already sprinting down the hallway, her heart climbing into her throat.

The nurse picked up her radio and watched as Lizzie sped off at a breakneck pace.“Wait… did I do something wrong?” The nurse called out after her. The double doors slammed shut and her question was left unanswered. 

Far down the corridor, Lizzie sprinted at full speed, her mind racing with a thousand dreadful thoughts of what might be happening to her children. All she could think of was Thomas’s description of the blond woman in his dream, the one who was after Brock. Somehow she just knew that this was the same person, she could feel it and it made her heart sink. Just as she reached the door to the private quarters that she and Thomas shared with the children, there was a loud crack of thunder and a brilliant light, as the entire base shook tremendously, knocking her down. Landing ungracefully on the floor, she looked up to the windows and saw a eerie, amber colored glow on the horizon. “Oh my God, what is that?” She muttered. Off in the distance, she heard a baby start to cry and then the lights flickered and went off, leaving the Shallow Bay shrouded in darkness.


End file.
